A tactile system for informing the blind on direction of a walk

Abstract

Paper presents the design and preliminary studies on vibrotactile method used to guide a blind person in the urban space. A very simple and effective method has been developed. It contains of two vibrators, especially developed control hardware and software. Properties of the proposed system were examined by visually impaired and normal persons using objective and subjective methods. Preliminary results show that it is possible to optimize the pattern of vibrations to reduce fault recognitions.